This year's National Day Parade (NDP) promises to be one of the country's most spectacular and boundary-pushing celebrations thus far. In particular, 2024's Show Segment aims to tell the stories of everyday Singaporeans by illuminating the collective strength and intricate diversity that defines our society through nostalgic songs and emotive filmlets.
Featuring a star-studded lineup of local musicians and over 3,000 performers - the NDP 2024 Show will consist of singalongs and mass performances across a youth-centred pre-parade segment, and multiple astonishing chapters. Here, we will be spotlighting the 7 homegrown artists who are slated to perform live at the Padang on 9 August, in order of the various the chapters they are participating in.
CHAPTER 3: TOGETHER, WE ACHIEVE
Amni Musfirah
Amni Musfirah is an accomplished pop and R&B songstress, as well as a music producer and founder of Blue Empire Entertainment. Although she's best known for hit songs such as 'Bisiki Cintamu', 'Crown' and 'Vacation' - Amni has also co-written ‘Embrace Tomorrow’, the official theme song of last year’s Chingay Parade, as well as ‘Cahaya’, the theme song of the animated film Walinong Sari. She'll be making her NDP debut alongside an ensemble from the Music and Drama Company to present an original composition by Kaylene Tan and Bang Wenfu called ‘Hold Up The Sky’. She also opens the show a rendition of Zubir Said's ‘Anggerik Singapura’.
Shabir Sulthan
The winner of Mediacorp’s famed singing competition Vasantham Star in 2005 has steadily become one of Singapore's most prominent and distinguished Tamil musicians. With a dozen releases as an independent artist, many more as a playback singer, and acclaimed scores for several hit films, Shabir is prolific to say the least. And we haven't even mentioned his award-winning acting career! He's also the founder of Shabir Music Asia, a creative media company that produces songs and soundtracks for TV, film and documentaries. Most recently, he launched a new podcast series to explore the the "Singapore sound". This year will be his second time performing at NDP, after taking the stage in 2007.
CHAPTER 4: WE EMBRACE OUR DIVERSITY
shazza
22-year-old rising singer-songwriter shazza is one of Singapore's brightest new stars. From appearing on a billboard at Times Square in New York City, to having her music praised by Coldplay’s Chris Martin - she's been making huge waves worldwide. Hot off her outstanding album chapter one, and latest single 'Rain In Manhattan' (featuring frequent collaborator Umar Sirhan), shazza is set make her NDP debut this year. She'll perform the Tamil classic, 'Andru Vanthathum Ithe Nila', as a duet with Ebi Shankara, as well as a cover of ‘You’re The Boy’ by local veterans Shirley Nair & The Silver Strings. Read our interview with shazza to learn more.
Joanna Dong
Jazz vocalist Joanna Dong has had a long and storied career as a vocalist and performer. Buoyed by her expressive tone and versatile style - her acclaimed discoraphy includes beloved bilingual hits such as 'A Good Goodbye', 'Wu Yan - Guo Yu Ban' and 'Nan Yi Kang Ju Ni Rong Yan', among many others. From placing third in popular singing competition, Sing! China; to performing with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, JASSO and Dingyi; to her decorated career as an actress and host - Joanna has proven herself to be a tour de force in the entertainment industry. In 2018's NDP, she performed an updated version 'We Are Singapore' as well as 'My Island Home'. This year, she perseveres through a recent operation (due to a breast cancer scare) to perform yet again.
CHAPTER 5: WE UPLIFT ONE ANOTHER
Olivia Chuang
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Ever since she started learning the cello and the age of 11, Olivia Chuang has been a prodigy at her chosen instrument. After obtaining a Bachelor of Music (BMus) as a scholarship holder from the Royal College of Music in London under the tutelage of Amanda Truelove, she's performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 Cellos, recorded Bang Wen Fu’s Loving, and played with the Orion Orchestra, the Scherzo Ensemble and the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (just to name a few) in renowned concert halls all around the world. Olivia is also active in pop music and has collaborated with artists such as JJ Lin, Kit Chan and Olivia Ong. This notable NDP debutant will be performing an instrumental version of the NDP 2024 theme song 'Not Alone'.
CHAPTER 6: OUR FUTURE, WE CREATE
Benjamin Kheng
We're fairly sure than Benjamin Kheng needs no introduction, but this pop music superstar deserves one nonetheless. After first gaining prominence as a member of The Sam Willows, he's since garnered recognition for chart-topping singles such as ‘Fresh Feelings’, 'Better With You', 'Good For A Time' and 'Lovers Forever', among many others. He's amassed an impressive 95 million streams on Spotify, been nominated at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and won Single of The Year at the Youth Music Awards. He's also served as a writer, director, and producer on numerous critically projects spanning both stage and screen, including Boo Jun Feng's short film Beautiful Dreamer. Having already performed at NDP thrice in 2015, 2019 and 2021 - this year he takes centerstage as the co-writer and co-producer (alongside Evan Low) of 2024's NDP theme song 'Not Alone'.
weish
One of the most groundbreaking and talented polymaths Singapore has ever produced. In the past she's balanced her solo career as a live looping singer-songwriter with her roles as frontwoman for electronic duo .gif and prog rock band sub:shaman. Lately, she's been dabbling in successful multi-disciplinary productions ranging from plays and short films to acting in TV shows. Just this year, she wrote, composed and even starred in Checkpoint Theatre’s musical Secondary, made her dance debut as part of Singapore International Festival of Arts’ (SIFA) movement opera SUARA / ORO RUA, and toured Europe with grindcore giants Wormrot. She's set to perform her wonderfully unorthodox NDP 2024 song 'Horizon' (co-produced by Claude Glass) at the Padang. Read our interview with weish to learn more.
